Mia's Missions on Mystery Mountain
by SideshowJazz1
Summary: Eight-year-old Mia is just another player of JumpStart 3rd Grade, only, for her, she's not in a computer game. This is her reality, and she's already on thin ice with being the new girl in Polly Spark's class at school. Written from an eight-year-old's POV, so I do need critique on how I'm writing. Playthrough of game (without too much repetitiveness) as if it was real. R&R!
1. Chapter 1: Mission Accepted

**A/N: I started this story ages ago, so I thought I might as well put up what I have. Please read and review!**

**Plot: The storyline of Jumpstart 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain. Eight-year-old Mia is starting a new school. During the tour after a day's trial, she sneaks off and finds herself in a darkened classroom when a robot crashes through the window, claiming that Polly Spark has used a time machine to change history. Mia accepts the challenge to help bring her robots back, and she is put on a futuristic academic adventure.**

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Knowledge Adventure except Mia, who belongs to me.**

I got bored of the tour around the school and sneaked away. They wouldn't miss me, a scrawny little girl who was supposed to be going to school here in two weeks. I'd been here for an orientation day already, and a girl with blonde pigtails wearing a dress that looked like a lab coat had been throwing spit balls at me every few minutes.

One of the other girls, Pauline I think, had whispered "The blonde girl? That's Polly Spark. She's the daughter of a genius inventor, but she has no friends, cause she's so mean."

Polly strongly reminded me of Helga Pataki off that Nickelodeon show "Hey Arnold!" Throwing spitballs was a common practice for both of them (although Helga usually reserved them for her secret crush) and they both had blonde pigtails (although Polly definitely took more care with her appearance).

The third grade room was dark, and on one desk there was a TransQuizzer, a gadget used for the pop quiz that day. I had taken the quiz, but since I wasn't officially a member of the class yet, I hadn't had it marked. I picked the gadget up in interest. I was about to put it down, when I was sidetracked by something blue and shiny crashing through the window! The thing held up a hand and pulled itself up by the desk. "If Professor Spark had meant for me to fly, he'd have given me wings." it muttered. It was a robot! A boy robot, by the voice. Wait a sec...do robots even have genders? "But what could I do?" the robot continued. "This mission is too important. Now where could it be...?"

"Um." I said. "Hey. Are you alright?" The robot jumped back in shock, blinking rapidly. Finally, he smiled in a friendly way.

"You startled me. I didn't think anyone would be here." he said, then he looked at the gadget I held. "Hey, you've got the um...uh...TransQuizzer! Now be careful with that thing, don't drop it! The future of the world may depend on that little machine in your hands." He went back into his little monologue to himself. "That is, if I'm not too late...there's so little time and so much to do." His eyes lit up. "But wait...nah. Well, it's worth a try." He turned back to me. "Listen, I need your help, and if you think you can handle it, you can help me save the world!"

"Wow, big thing." I said sarcastically. "Are you for real, robot?"

The robot looked disappointed. "I'm completely serious." he said. "And don't call me robot. I'm Android Excel 2, but you can call me Botley if you want. That's what Professor Spark and most others call me. It's not what Polly calls me.." he trailed off "...well, never mind what Polly calls me."

"Wait, are you talking about Polly Spark?" I asked, remembering his mention of Professor Spark.

"Yeah, that's her." Botley answered. "You've met her?"

"Orientation day." I answered. "She's so annoying. Oh, and let me introduce myself. I'm Mia."

"Well, Mia," Botley said, "The thing is, I'm supposed to keep Polly out of trouble – her father invented me because he couldn't find any sitters brave enough to take her on. I'm also programmed to be her friend – but believe me, it's tougher than it sounds. Anyway, as I said, I'm meant to keep her out of trouble when her father's away. He left for a conference yesterday. With her, that's always tough, but today it was totally impossible! She came home from school madder than I've ever seen her – and that's saying something – then she locked herself in Professor Spark's secret chamber." At this he looked nervous. "Now, I shouldn't really tell you the next bit, I was programmed for secrecy, but I deprogrammed myself since it was an emergency. The thing is, Professor Spark made a real time machine, and Polly sent twenty five other androids back in time and changed the world. It's seriously scary."

"How come I haven't heard this?" I asked. "I do live in this world."

"It only happened fifteen minutes ago." Botley informed me. "But trust me, some crazy things have been going on already. But if you would like to help me, we could rescue all the androids between us, and maybe even stop the world from getting too weird. Just hand me the TransQuizzer first. We really need it." He held out a hand. I looked at him, thinking it over.

"OK." I finally said. "I'll help you." I handed over the TransQuizzer.

"Cool." Botley said. "OK." He wrapped a metallic arm around my waist firmly "Hang on tight. I have to use this rocket to get there. Just don't look down." He pressed a button, and a rocket appeared from his back. We zoomed off, very unsteadily. Luckily, he didn't drop me, but we still crash landed at the foot of a mountain.

"Sorry about the landing." Botley apologized as soon as he'd gotten his bearings. "I wasn't programmed to fly."

"Explain the rocket." I challenged.

"It's a separate part." he said immediately. "Just because it's the same colour as me doesn't make it part of me. Anyway, this is home sweet home for me. Polly should be inside, and I bet she's watching us now."

"So what is she like most of the time?" I asked.

"Very smart." Botley said first. "But she knows it, and she hates me especially. She calls me names a lot."

Suddenly, a screen appeared from behind near rocks, and a slightly familiar face appeared on it, framed by blonde pigtails. "Oh, you're back. I've been looking for you." she said with a smirk. This was Polly. "I can see you brought help, and you've got the TransQuizzer!"

"She knows we need it." Botley whispered to me.

"Didn't my father teach you it's rude to tell secrets, _Rotley?"_ Polly said. "Well, I suppose he's told you his side of everything, but what does he know?"

"Prove you know something!" I shot back.

Polly's smirk intensified. "Well, well, well, she speaks. Yes, take along the girl who's just moved here and hasn't talked in class for the one day she trialed at my school. Like she'll be any help."

"So as well as being an annoyance to other kids, you're also stuck-up and quick to judge." I retorted. "Go on, we're waiting to hear what you did."

Polly smirked again. "The teacher handed us a pop quiz. I already knew all the answers, and she knew I knew them. So just to have some fun, I made up my own answers to that dumb old quiz. But instead of laughing like she was supposed to, she gave me a big fat zero. I felt faint and short of breath – no one's ever given me a zero before!" she said, putting on a dramatic voice.

"Well, that's not quite true, Polly," Botley objected. "I remember just two weeks ago-"

"Shut up, this is _my _story." Polly snapped. "Anyway, I got the most brilliant idea. Instead of settling for a bad grade, I'd change history to match my answers."

"So you sent twenty-five robots back in time to save history? How could you do that, Polly?"

"Oh, that was the easy part. Since Daddy has the time machine up there. I just reprogrammed them and got them into the right time. Unfortunately, there's one more question...the extra-credit question, and it's super hard. That's why I've been searching for you, Notley."

"That's _Botley!" _the robot cried. "And I want no part in this. Bring the robots back! Don't you see, Polly? You could destroy us all!"

"'You could destroy us all!'" Polly mimicked. "Per-lease. Why don't you two bring them back? I'll even give you the help you need. After all, it's not like you two can undo all my good work, even if I try helping you a bit. To make it so easy even you two can figure it out, I'll leave the first part of the test on the first floor. Just put the disc into the TransQuizzer. Then figuring out where I sent the robots should be simple. Oh, by the way, you two will have to get into the house first, and I changed the locks. Good luck."

I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. Had I seriously agreed to go on this super-weird futuristic mission?

**Please, please, PLEASE review.**


	2. Chapter 2: Unlocking Doors

**Let's continue. Thanks for reviewing, Antsloth.**

"So how do we get in?" I asked Botley as the screen went down.

"It's one of those locks you use when you reproduce the chimes, like a memory game." he told me. "Ring the doorbell to start the unlocking mechanism."

I did so, and three stones out of the six on the door flashed a colour in turn, one note in music playing. I pressed the stones in the same order, and one lock unlocked itself. There were still five more, and the next two had four stones. I got through those and the next two (which had five) OK. It was only when I got to the last one, which had all six to press. The third one I pressed made a buzzing sound.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Botley. "Not quite."

"What do I do?" I panicked.

"It'll replay." he reassured me. "Just try again. It's only this one lock."

I remembered it correct the next time, and the door slid open.

At that moment, Botley pulled out something long and curved. "Here, take this. It's a utility belt." I tied it around my waist. "It absorbs everything we need in the inventory, and that number there shows our amount of invention points. No doubt Polly will be using it against us." He scowled briefly. "Now...our destiny!"

He gave me a brief tour of the first floor, just pointing out all the rooms connected to the main hall, admitting "I guess I should give you the two-cent tour. Over there is the kitchen. Back there's the art gallery, and over there is the music hall." He grinned at me. "When Polly takes her weekly music lesson, let me tell you, the whole place clears out. Oh, and downstairs is the electro-generator. The utility belt tells you how much power is left to power the mountain by the colour. Once it's red, we have only enough power left to repower the generator, so we'll probably have to do that every day-"

I interrupted. "Speaking of days, how long will I be staying there, and where will I be staying?"

At that moment, a screen wound down from the ceiling, and Polly's face appeared on it, smirking again. "I'll field that one." she offered. "I'm staying right where I am until Daddy gets home. For that time, you can have my bedroom. Now, if you're serious about trying to bring back the robots, you might want to get the quiz disc I left you." The screen wound back up.

"So where's that?" I asked Botley.

"I'll show you that later." he said. "A word of warning; she's probably booby-trapped it or done something to it, so let me check everything over first, OK?"

I nodded.

We found the disc on the table on the nearby table, and slotted it into the TransQuizzer. Immediately, two faces flashed up on the screens. I recognized the third-grade teacher, Ms Winkle on one, and Polly on the other.

"Good morning, Polly!" Ms Winkle's screen-self said brightly. "I hope you've studied for the quiz today. You may have a lot of natural ability, but even geniuses need to study. Now, today's quiz is all about inventions and discoveries. There are twenty-five questions total on the discs. That's five discs and questions on five different levels. So, sit up straight, put on your thinking cap, and select your first question!"

"So we need to select one of the quiz questions." I mused. "Which one?"

"It doesn't matter which one." Botley answered. "We have to bring all the robots back, after all."

"Well, I think it matters, like if Polly decides to make things super hard on the fifth question we pick or something, we should look for the most important things to change. Let's see...Earth revolves around the sun...Olympic prize-winners...basketball...role of a nurse...scuba diving...OK." I picked the question of what the role of a nurse was. Polly's answer was to serve the patient ice cream and cake. "Medicine like that makes you feel better instantly!"

Once we'd put the TransQuizzer back into the Inventory, the monitor wound down again, and Polly appeared.

"Polly," Botley said, "You know I'm programmed to clear up the trouble you make, and that includes bringing back my robot pals. I don't expect you to tell me where they are, but how about just a little hint?"

"Well, it just so happens," she said, "That I realized long ago you'd try to mess up my work, so I covered my tracks by hiding clues all over the mountain, four clues total. Even if you two can find them all, which I highly doubt you will, you'll still need to work out where I sent each robot from them. Oh, and you need to get invention points to even get into the time machine. Around one thousand should be enough."

"Well Polly, OK." Botley answered. "It seems we have choice but to play by your rules, as unfair as they are. Just tell us what we need to find for the mission."

"Cool your pits, Hotley." Polly teased. "Here's the situation: I sent Dr Bugbot back in time. I'm not telling you what clues you'll need to find – trust me, you'll know 'em when you see 'em." The screen wound back up.

"That was a good idea to choose first." Botley remarked. "Dr Bugbot is the robot doctor. Like if a computer virus gets into my system, he'll be the only one able to get it out of my programme. Anyway, my sensors should indicate if something is out of place, so that'll show where the mission clues are." He waited for a moment before the aerial wire on his head beeped and flashed red. "OK. I've sensed that there are two mission clues on this floor. There's one in the kitchen and one in the music hall." He glanced over at the doors to each place. "Polly's changed the mathematical locks on the kitchen door." he told me. "The music hall has the usual password, but it changes every time anyway."

"Let's try the music hall first." I suggested. "How do I work out the password?"

"Anagrams."

"What?"

"You're given four anagrams – mixed up words – then once you've worked those out, you've got four clues to the password, which is also mixed up." We reached the door, and Botley called out to the doorknob. "Hey, Bothoven!"

The doorknob turned into a face. "Huh? Hello? Who's there? Oh, Botley, it's you! You should have called out, instead of just scuffling around. And who's your friend?" I figured he was hard of hearing – even robots suffered from human problems, I reflected.

"This is Mia." Botley explained. "Listen, Polly's up to no good again, and we're trying to stop her. Can you help us with the anagrams?"

"Huh?" Bothoven said. "Speak up, don't mumble!"

"CAN – YOU – HELP – US?" we both bellowed.

"Now, if I just gave you the answers, Polly would reboot me in a heartbeat." Bothoven pointed out. "But if you're really having trouble, I'll give you a clue."

"Um...Mia..." Botley said, "You're going to have to do this. I'm not programmed for academics."

I groaned. "So what's the point of you being here?"

"I know the house, I know Polly, and besides, the whole point of asking you for help was because you can do the things I can't."

I sighed and moved to the four anagrams. I got them fairly quickly, being "rain", "wind", "heat" and "sleet". After that, it was a snap to work out the password.

"That is correct!" Bothoven told me once I got it. "The password is 'weather'." And the door slid open.

Botley grinned at me. "Mia, you are one smart kid. I'm glad it was you I found."

I grimaced. "Wait until you see me trying to do math."

Botley laughed. "Come on, let's go get that first mission clue."

**Second chapter done. OK, please review.**


	3. Chapter 3: Yankee Doodle and Carbonara

**Onto the music hall.**

Before anything happened, Botley introduced me to Maestro Trombot, the conductor of the robot chorus. "Maestro? Hey, Maestro!"

The robot shushed him. "You misaligned my perfect pitch sensors!" He sang a scale. "There we go." I noticed his Italian accent.

"Oh, sorry, Maestro." Botley apologized. "But Polly's got us frustrated with her plots and now the future of the world and civilization as we know it is at stake."

"Mamma mia!" Maestro exclaimed. "If only she concentrated on her music, she wouldn't have the time or inclination to destroy the world. Music is such a civilizing influence. Although her voice...let's just say it's not music to my ears."

Right on cue, a monitor wound down and Polly appeared on the screen. "I heard that, Maestro. You just don't appreciate my instrument." She sang a few notes very badly, and then proceeded to give us our challenge. She gave us a few bars of music to play for her. "And please, play it right. My delicate ears can't handle even one sour note. You mess up, and you get nothing. Nada, zilch, nix."

With that, the monitor wound up, and Maestro noticed me for the first time. "Who are you?" he asked in suspicion.

"This is Mia." Botley explained for me. "You know how useless I am at academic stuff, but I'm also the only robot who has any chance to stop Polly on my own. I needed a partner who could help with the school-type stuff, and Mia's already proved to be exactly right."

"Oh, stop." I said, playfully slapping his shoulder.

Maestro nodded at me. "A pleasure to meet you, Mia. Do you play any instruments?"

I shook my head shyly. "I like singing, though." I admitted.

"Wonderful!" Maestro exclaimed.

We had to get started on playing Polly's song for her, though. The music was mixed up into four lines, but Maestro played it for me.

"I know that song!" I exclaimed. "It's 'Yankee Doodle', isn't it?" I sorted the mixed up music in a trice. That was fine, but then Maestro played it, and asked me to sing. I didn't even like the song itself, but I'd said I liked singing, so there was no way I could refuse.

I quietly sang the old-as-time rhyme. "_Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony,_

_He stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni!"_

"You know, in Italy," Maestro said, "Macaroni was actually a name for a feather people wore in their hats. I bet you never knew that!"

I hadn't, actually, but I was more interested in the mission clue we were given – a lamp. Finally, it was time to go to the kitchen.

"This is worrying." I confessed. "I'm useless at math. What if we can't get in?"

Botley didn't seem so worried. "It's OK, Mia. Just do your best. Even if you do have problems, I probably have enough knowledge to help a bit, and if I remember, Mort's usually in the kitchen, and he's good at math."

"Who's Mort?" I asked as we reached the door. A metal face appeared at the window.

"That's Mort." Botley explained. "He's one of the nicer robots around, but he gets a bit crazy when he's hungry."

"Robots eat?"

"You have no idea."

"Thank goodness you're here!" Mort called through the door in a gravelly gruff voice. "I'm starving and I don't know how to cook."

There were three locks on the door, and I had to answer three equations, but they were OK, really. It was just simple math. The door swung open easily.

Botley grinned at me. "See, you did it! Polly has nothing on you." Then he led me into the kitchen.

"So what were you saying about robots and food?"

"Well, most of us are usually hungry." Botley admitted. "Even me. And don't even ask about our table manners. Around now I'd usually be able to scarf down fifty-seven plates of just about anything, but being programmed to keep Polly under control, and with her mischief-making...well, I've lost my appetite."

A monitor appeared. I groaned. "What does Polly want this time?"

As a matter of fact, all she said was "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Of course, if you do leave, you won't be able to find the mission clue I've hidden here."

Botley looked around. I looked at Mort, and then asked "Did Polly give you anything, or hide anything here?"

Mort looked confused. "Maybe...but I can't remember where I put it. But I might remember if I have some food."

I shrugged. "OK. Botley, how do I do this?"

"The feeding machine is in the middle of the room." Botley answered. "I'll make the food and work the machine, but Mort always wants weird things with whatever it is. You'll have to measure them out." He pointed to a shelf which had labeled measuring instruments for solid foods, molecules of other things, and liquids.

Mort ordered spaghetti carbonara. I had to gather everything else he wanted, ie: metal gears, oxygen, strawberries, and oil.

"Well, bon appetit, I guess." Botley said. He looked at me. "Press the on/off switch in front of the machine, and I'll crank this baby into gear."

I pulled the lever. While Botley prepared the main meal, he put the condiments Mort wanted to onto a conveyer belt for me to take and measure out. The strawberries and metal gears were easy, but it took me a couple of tries to add the right amount of oil. Then I got so frustrated with the molecules of oxygen that I stopped the machine.

Botley looked up. "Wait a minute! Are you sure you're done?"

"I'm not done, but I need help!" I exclaimed. "How can I add these molecules when I don't even know how to get the oxygen in?"

Botley sighed. "OK. You add the mushrooms to the carbonara and I'll measure out the oxygen. Then we'll be ready to add everything."

It all went smoothly, and Mort thanked us profusely.

"Way to go!" Botley said, high fiving me. "Now maybe he'll shut up."

Mort didn't seem to hear him. "For providing such a fine feast, here's your tip." He brought out a baby bottle, which I put in the inventory.

"Guess it's time we moved on to the upstairs." I said as we left.

Botley nodded. "Uh-huh. There are some really cool things upstairs. There's two more floors. The first one has the biosphere and the Shrinkamatic, and the other one has the observatory and this robot maze...I'll explain. Oh, and the time machine is at the top, but Polly's locked it in a way so we can't get in until we've got all the mission clues and the adventure points."

We got to the spiral staircase and climbed up. Finally, we got to the top, and Botley said, again, "Stand back now, while I sense the place out." His antennae bleeped again and he said "Bingo! I sense a mission clue in the biosphere." He jerked his head in the direction of a pair of glass doors.

**We'll go to the biosphere next! Hope you'll like it.**


	4. Chapter 4: Blonde Cartoons

**OK, here we are. Oh, and for those of you who are saying "it was rainforest, not jungle", they mean the same thing. Thank you for reviewing, J4RRE77 and mysteryfan4ever.**

Botley explained to me that the biosphere was an environment where different plants could exist, with five environments within: desert, jungle, savannah, mountains, and ocean. Little explorer machines were sent in and remote-controlled so as to keep the plants isolated from outside influences, and they were watched by a monitor. A bunch of explorers were sitting on a shelf. As Botley told me all about Professor Spark's system for the biosphere, we had an interruption.

"Oh, Motley and Mia, over here!" Polly's face had appeared on the monitor. "Daddy doesn't deserve all the credit. I planted some things in the biosphere, too!"

"Sure, Polly." Botley said expressionlessly. "Whatever you say."

I was brought back to that comparison of Polly with Helga from Hey "Arnold!". Whenever Helga made up something or said something to Arnold like she only kissed him for ages during their school play as an act, or that being mean is who she is, or that she and her friend Phoebe were on his fire escape at night because they were 'taking a walk', Arnold would reply "Whatever you say, Helga" in a very similar way to how Botley had just spoken.

"I did!" Polly protested. "You don't have to believe me, but I just thought you might be interested in knowing that I planted a mission clue there. You can't get your poor robot friend back without it. Don't expect me to tell you where I hid it, though. That would be too easy."

"Why are you telling us this?" I snapped.

"Because you think you're so smart that you can find it yourself." Polly smirked at me. "You managed to play my song and feed Mort. You should be able to give your new best friend here a little help with those brains of yours."

"The biosphere is huge!" Botley protested. "You expect us to find a needle in a haystack, so to speak."

"Relax, Notley." Polly told him. "I know Daddy didn't exactly overload you with smarts, and your little friend isn't exactly Einstein, even if she has a few more brain cells. I guess I could even the playing field and give you some hints along the way. And here's your first hint; get one of those explorers launched. Even you should be able to understand that."

"Boy, someday..." Botley muttered. He looked at me. "Well, we better launch one of these and see what Polly's got in store for us inside the biosphere. Press the green button. That's the launch button."

A picture appeared on the monitor as an explorer was launched. "Hm, this is weird." Botley muttered. "It seems like the explorer is underground. I guess what we need to do is fly up into the biosphere. That should be above us." He gave me a smile. "I guess it's my turn to do the work for this." But then, when the explorer was flown into an airlock, we were given our first hint. Whenever we flew into an airlock, Polly would flash up on the screen and give us a multiple-choice question. She'd only open the airlock if we got it right.

I got a shock the first time this happened. "You could think for a million years but you'd still never get this question right." Polly said confidently. "Which animal lives underground – a flying fish, a golden eagle, or a ground squirrel?" She looked at us for a moment, and then added "Wait a second, Plotley – I know you won't know anything I"m asking you. If you're controlling the explorer, let your friend answer my questions. Well, Mia?"

That one was easy. "A ground squirrel." I answered calmly.

Polly shrugged. "I knew you'd get that one." She let us through.

Next, she said, "I hope you appreciate how much effort is going into asking you these difficult questions," before proceeding to ask a really easy question. When I got it right, she actually admitted "That was way too easy."

The next one was a little harder, and when I answered incorrectly, Polly's eyes lit up and she exclaimed "You're outta there" and left the airlock closed. It was about which animal was related to mice and rats, and I didn't think it was some kind of fly or a prairie dog, which only left a bison. I figured afterward that it must have been a prairie dog.

When we put it back in, she asked another question, and I got it right, to which she said in a superior tone "_Everyone _knows that."

Next time, all she said was "Just a lucky guess!" when I got it right.

Finally, we got the last question pretty easily. "Yeah, yeah, so you got it right." Polly admitted, looking a bit irritated. After that, we were above ground, and it was time to work out what it was. I made a guess. "Hmm...a ground squirrel, a drought, a cactus...doesn't that only fit a desert? The ocean is definitely out, and I somehow can't see a cactus on the mountains. A drought absolutely couldn't occur in the jungle, since it is also called a rainforest. I don't know about the savannah, though."

"We have two keys on the console." Botley answered. "If you're wrong about the desert, we'll go to the savannah next."  
>As it happened, I was completely right about the desert. We opened the box on the console, and a bar of soap lay there.<p>

It was getting late by that time. I was starving hungry, and way too tired to go looking for yet another mission clue tonight.

"Can we _please _get on with it tomorrow?" I asked. "All I want to do is eat something, then get some sleep."

Botley looked a bit disappointed, but he said "OK, Mia. I understand. Let's get to the kitchen. It's lucky Mort only ate an hour ago, otherwise we'd probably have to feed him again."

We did have to re-open the door, but although Mort was hanging around, he wasn't hungry. I was able to quickly microwave something for myself. After that, a monitor came down while I was eating, and Polly appeared on it.

"Mia, got a bit of info for you that you should've already asked for. The parents got worried when they realized you were gone, but I've got you covered. Sent a message to let them know that you're here – I didn't tell them everything of course, but you've got permission to stay here for as long as you want, or at least until Daddy gets home, which won't be for a few weeks."

"Um, why are you helping?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be trying to stop me from helping mess up your plans?"

Polly shrugged, and her smirk grew. "The extra-credit question will explain everything."

I gave her another look, and then decided to let her in on what she reminded me of. "You know something? I wouldn't be too surprised if you started wearing pink and scowling all the time." I giggled. "And then you got a weird crush on someone and started writing poetry."

At that moment, Polly, although the smirk remained, looked pretty mad. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, when you stop comparing me to that sappy version of a mean girl. Goodnight, enjoy the services of my room." And with that the monitor went blank and wound back up.

Botley gave an approving grin from across the table. "She got the reference you were putting in." he grinned. "She made me sit through that program a couple times, but she only ever watches it to make fun of all the characters. The one you were talking about is the one that carries around a picture of the main character, right? She kept laughing about her and saying stuff like _Who does she think she's kidding about hating him _and _this girl is an insult to the term 'bully'. _I personally think," he whispered, "She had it coming to be told that she reminded you of the character. Anyway," he sighed. "I guess you'll want to go rest up."

Polly's bedroom wasn't booby-trapped, thank goodness. I slept well, and when I woke up the next morning, I was completely ready to get the last mission clue and rescue the first robot.

**So, either the observatory or the robot maze will be next. Hopefully that chapter was a bit more interesting.**


	5. Chapter 5: Cake From The Doctor

**OK, let's go on. Thank you for reviewing, mysteryfan4ever and J4RRE77. Anyway, a few things.  
>First, Mia is eight years old. She is going to get things wrong. Anything factually wrong she writes is something I would've gotten wrong at that age. Second, for those of you wondering what Mia looks like, she's petite, skinny, has dark-chocolate brown hair in a ponytail, and dark brown eyes, fair skin with no freckles, and a naturally serious expression.<strong>

**Lastly, I am sad to say that I see no way of finishing this story. The game gets rather repetitive, so I will only be writing up to the end of the second mission. However, if you would like me to write the ending of the last mission, I will do it.**

After I'd had breakfast (outside of the kitchen), it was time to find the last mission clue, which was up on the top floor. Botley introduced me to the observatory first. "Recently, Professor Spark caught Polly spying on the neighbours with the telescope. Boy, did she get a long time out!"

Next was the robot maze, which was used as an obstacle course for Professor Spark to test his robots. "Of course, I passed with flying colours when I was tested, but he does come across a few robots with some bugs that have to be worked out."

"Are you sure you passed first time?" I teased. "Maybe you had some bugs and when he worked those out your memories from previous testing were deleted."

Botley shrugged. "I don't know, Mia. Stop teasing me. Anyway, ssh, I need to sense for clues." The antennae didn't take long to start bleeping. "OK, all sensors indicate that Polly hid a mission clue in the observatory."

We walked into the room, which looked awesome. I waited for the monitor to wind down, and sure enough, Polly appeared to explain about the mission clue. "But it's not in this room. In fact, it's not even in the solar system, because I used one of Daddy's rockets to ship it into deep space, special delivery! You won't find it by just looking around the void – you'll have to figure out exactly where to look."

"How do we do that, Polly?" Botley asked with a desperate tone. He had a point.

"Space is...what's the word teachers use? _Infinite._" I added.

"Well..." Polly said thoughtfully, "Just because I'm such a nice girl, I'll give you a teeny weeny hint." She pulled a lever. "There you go. I've just sent the hint flying off to the black hole Daddy recently discovered. If you work fast, you might rescue the hint before it gets sucked into another dimension. Then again, maybe you'll fail. Scary, huh?"

"What do we do?" I panicked.

Botley only smirked. "Leave this one to me." He managed to use some kind of gadget to shoot at the hint and bring it back to the observatory, while both of us watched it through the telescope.

However, the translator had mixed up the sentences, so I had to reorder the fragments. After a couple of minutes, I came up with: "_I made the days longer than the nights. I made the grass grow tall and days grow warm. How did I do all these things? I brought spring to ancient people."_

"So I have to find out which constellation brought spring?" I said, confused. "That means it's a constellation that must be around March, April or May. Probably March."

After I got that, I was able to look around. Aries the ram fit the description. I turned back to Botley. "I've got it! It's Aries!"

Botley pointed up. "You must be right – here comes the spaceship!"

Sure enough, we received the last mission clue, and we had enough invention points. We had enough energy to last the trip, so it was time to open the time machine.

As we stepped up to the stony doors, I felt myself stiffen. Botley obviously caught on, because he looked at me with concern. "Are you OK, Mia?" he asked.

"Sure." I said, my voice shaking.

He didn't buy it. "Hey, you can admit if you're scared. I'm shaking in my silver."

I pressed a palm to his shoulder, and I could literally feel him vibrating.

"OK, I admit it." I muttered. "I'm terrified. What if we just end up messing up time even more?"

"We won't." Botley assured me. "We'll stay in the machine, call the robot back, and go. That's it. The time machine was made to observe, rather than change things, anyway. I suppose he didn't think that Polly would dare use the time machine herself. I'm more worried about getting the key than anything else. Well, I would be if it was just me." We opened the doors, and I finally looked into the room.

"Wow." Botley said in a croaky voice. "I wasn't sure we'd ever make it to Mission Control before I found you. I was lucky, I guess. I just went to the school, hoping there'd be someone there who'd listen to me. And I'll admit, I had doubts when you first asked me if I was for real. But, you know something, Mia? I think you're amazingly brave to agree to take this on. And I'm glad you did, because I couldn't possibly have even been able to get into the music room or the kitchen. Apart from that, you worked out which constellation was the right one, and the area in the biosphere."

"OK, so what's the point of all this flattery?" I teased.

Botley smiled back. "I guess I was just trying to raise your confidence over the quiz we have to get into the time machine. But I meant it."

"So, what about the quiz?" I asked.

"Oh, right. Well, see that machine up here?" Botley pointed up a bunch of orange stairs, where there was a screen and a wheel with four boxes...boxes that held replicas of the mission clues in the inventory. "That's called the Wheel of Invention. The clues will lead to finding out where we need to go and which inventor we need to find. See, the Professor made this quiz to make sure not just anyone could use the machine, because some of the robots kept going back to taunt the early computers. You have to know a little bit of everything, but it shouldn't be too hard. If Polly can do it twenty-five times over, so can we. It's too difficult for the robots, but I don't think it's too difficult for you."

We headed for the Wheel. But the minute we got up there, a podium appeared out of the ground and music started playing.

"Oh, brother!" groaned Botley. "I can't believe it, but Polly reprogrammed it. It's being done in the style of a quiz show!" He looked at the screen on my podium, which said _Welcome to POLLYWOOD SQUARES, Contestant! _"So the show is called Pollywood Squares, and you're the first contestant!"

Suddenly, the monitor behind me spoke. "This is how you play: Answer three questions on each clue to find out what, where, when and who and create a profile of your mission." It paused, and then added "I'm Monty Monitor."

"I'll press the on/off button for you." Botley said quickly. "Your questions should appear on the screen, and you just have to touch the answer to get it right, I think."

Twelve questions were asked. I discovered that the mission was about nursing, which was invented as a profession and taught by Florence Nightingale or (Lady Of the Lamp) in England, 1860. Once we'd discovered it, Monty Monitor fell silent once again, and the key magically appeared. Botley excitedly grabbed my hand and pulled me into the time machine, too excited to let me catch my breath.

"Wow..never thought I'd see the inside of this thing!" Botley exclaimed. "Pretty cool, huh? Let's see..." he looked around. "I think I know how to work this. The information is over there-" he pointed at a screen which displayed the time, place and person around it. "And the screen is our window into the future. That button down next to it is the one that will call the robot back – trust me, it knows. Back when the robots kept going back themselves, that was how Professor Spark called them back. So, I'll drive it, and you get the robot back."

I obediently sat down by the button, cross-legged. "OK, then. Let's get moving!"

Botley pulled the lever, and I felt the machine jolt as we came out of the fifth dimension to watch Florence Nightingale tending to a patient with the robot I assumed to be Dr Bugbot persuading the Lady of the Lamp to feed her patients ice cream and cake. It worked.

"Oh no!" Botley groaned as he watched. "Hit the Recall button!" I did so and Dr Bugbot appeared back in the time machine. The nurse was doing her normal job and Botley took us home.  
>"OK, we better go take Dr Bugbot to the robot roost."<p>

"The what?" I questioned.

"He needs to recuperate before he can go back to his usual business." Botley explained. "It'll take a few days."

We put the robot in the 'roost', but then, a monitor wound down, and Polly put her word in. "Nice work, you two. I guess my own innate intelligence has started to rub off on you. But this little nightmare's not over yet – far from it! More robots to find, more challenges to meet...good luck! You'll need it."

**We'll start the next mission next chapter! Please review!**


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